Friday Night DASH
Once again, not in San Francisco, but in San Mateo do we discover good sushi at I would add, very affordable prices. A 30 minute drive south of the city is DASH Japanese Tapas and Sushi. Located right across from the movie theater, you’d probably overlook it if it weren’t for the lines. We had reservations so that worked out perfectly.
We were seated right away and took a couple run throughs of the menu and went with their omakase. Here, they have two choices for omakase, a $20USD 5 piece or a $40USD 10 piece. You can do either sashimi or nigiri. We chose nigiri along with a couple appetizers. It was advertise as a tapas place as well, so why not.
The appetizers came out quickly and all were good except for the shooter. I’d forgo getting that and stick to sushi. Then it was prepping for our sushi courses. That meant passing time with beers, several actually. Service could use some more tuning. But to be fair, they were training a new member. We had to flag down our servers for orders and re-orders. Even though we could have gone through our sushi chef, he was busy preparing all the sushi for the restaurant. He does a fantastic job with the fish. All they need to do is train someone else to help scale the offering. I saw him prepare the ten piece nigiri set when we first came in. As the place got busy and it came to us, we got a serving of 5 and 5 (and eventually another 5). A good move by the chef to keep us from sitting without anything to eat.
I can tell this place has potential of going from good to great. Chef George was very personable and the selection of fish was perfect for those who want to expand their experiences in sushi.
DASH Japanese Tapas and Sushi
220 Main St
San Mateo, CA 94401
+1 (650) 340-1508
Verdict: An unpretentious place for sushi at a surprisingly low cost. This may become my neighborhood favorite.
This piece was the one I had trouble with when it came to its name. The chef emphasized this was “single line mackerel.” We weren’t sure what it meant. Maybe it meant delicious because I always love this style of mackerel. Straight up uncured with just a bit of toppings.
Well, our small dinner party enjoyed the meal well enough to pop a photo.
At this point we had plenty to drink so it was better to order an extra 5 piece omakase for the chef to choose for us. There were repeat pieces which we didn’t mind. He did add a couple new ones for us.
Another hard to find fish stateside was this, halfbeak fish. A wonderful surprise in the bonus round. The tastes brought me back to Japan. I don’t think my dinner party noticed my teleportation. Must have been busy eating their own portions. What a way to finish off our dinner.
Starting off our bonus round was king salmon. A thin piece possibly near the collar, it was seared to enhanced the flavor. Lovely.
At the end of our ten pieces of nigiri, we tried the geoduck. I almost forgot I had this before. Flown in from Japan, this one had more of that sea taste you get from oysters along with that firm crunchiness. You may have to ask for this specialty. It’s not normally carried by most restaurants.
Last piece of the set was sea urchin from Santa Barbara. Yeah, they have Hokkaido uni but that’s not included due to the price point. You can tell the difference here. A little more brine in the flavor that hangs around in the after taste. Still good.
No sushi meal is complete without fatty tuna. Here we have the medium fat tuna belly. Looks like it was cooked a bit. It didn’t do much to the taste. Not sure what it was suppose to do, but still enjoyed the decadent fattiness of this stuff.
Ah, my good friend barracuda. How I’ve missed you, especially when the skin is charred to really give you full flavor. So glad they do it perfectly here. Fellow barracuda fans, you’ll be happy here.
Stripe jack leads the tasting on our second set. Nice and fresh with that “dash” of nikiri (like that?) kept the flavors of the fish from being washed away.
Next set was laid out in front of us and we couldn’t wait to dive in. Although, I needed to delay my tasting to get the names of all the fish. So glad to be sitting at the bar. Chef George was more than happy to repeat the names for us.
Now this wasn’t what I was expecting for shrimp. It’s quickly grilled then topped with sweet cream and pine nuts. Definitely something I had to have again, which I did. Although it doesn’t rank in my top five favorites, I had to comprehend exactly what I was eating with a second serving.
The marinated bluefin tuna was almost too pretty to eat. That color and texture profile you see here was just so cool looking. Topped with a light coating of nikiri and a dab of that magic pellet it, I have to say, bluefin tuna never looked so good.
The amberjack cut was seasoned lightly with sea salt giving it a bit of a crunch. Tasted great.
The flounder was delicate. And while good, it fell a bit short of being memorable.
Sea trout kicks off tonight’s feast. Very similar to arctic char and salmon, so of course, I loved this bite.
Beautiful. There’s just something about those colors that make these meals to special. Almost wanted to take pictures of this all day.
I really loved this dish. The creaminess of the sea urchin with the firmness of the squid was wonderful. Barely enough for two, but since we had our sushi on the way, I didn’t mind sharing.
$8.00USD
It was an amazing start to the meal. Raw premium cuts of beef in a light citrus soy sauce based marinade. Good enough for three people to wet their appetites.
$12.00USD
The list of the latest fish from Japan.